White Hills Botanic Garden

The early gold miners chased alluvial gold, following Bendigo Creek towards six or seven strange, round, white hills at the northern end of the valley. These hills were made of quartz conglomerate of incredible hardness. In 1852, a party of Cornish miners managed to dig through the quartz cap to a layer of white pipe clay studded with fabulous quantities of gold.

A huge rush followed and for a time White Hills was at the centre of the action. The gardens were reserved on old diggings in 1857, but nearly all new development gravitated toward the former government camp, now Rosalind Park. The gardens were left marooned in a quiet suburb.

The lake at the centre of the gardens is the last remaining natural section of the fabulously rich Bendigo Creek which, elsewhere, has been moved, buried, straightened and lined. Like many botanic gardens, including Melbourne, White Hills had a small zoo from its earliest days, a tradition that now only continues at very few botanic gardens, including White Hills.